Getting Silver Hair & Keeping It Silver With Slunks Cardiff

A few months ago I popped down to see the lovely Joel at Slunks Salon in Cardiff for a hair overhaul. My brassy golden locks had definitely looked better, and to be honest, I just didn’t know what to do with my hair. I absolutely love having hair that’s a little bit wild: big, long, and a crazy colour. So naturally, my blonde look just wasn’t doing it for me anymore.

I actually wanted to visit Slunks for a while as they have always been known as the place to go for alternative hair, but they were located a bit further out of Cardiff Town Centre than I tended to venture as a student. Luckily for me, and all other alternative-hair-lovers in the Cardiff vicinity, they’ve relocated to a permanent spot in the Morgan Arcade. Oh, and they’re new salon looks the bomb too.

I dropped Joel an email telling him exactly what I wanted for a hair shake up, and I dropped into the salon for an initial appointment which included looking at and feeling my hair texture, talking through the colouring process, and doing a v. important patch test to ensure I don’t react to the chemicals. Fab first impressions there, I’m always wary of salons that don’t actually tell you what they’re going to do to your hair, or even worse – Some don’t do a patch test!

A few weeks later and I returned (v. excitedly) to Slunks for my actual hair appointment. The plan was: lift, tone, colour. Even though my hair was a sandy (yellow, oops) blonde, it was no way near light enough to hit that metallic hue. You really do need to lift your hair to a v. pale yellow before toning, otherwise the toner wont be strong enough to pull those brassy tones out to get that cool colour you want from a silver or platinum look.

After my hair was lifted a few levels (to a base 10) with Schwarzkopf Blonde Me, my hair was cleaned and toned. The Blonde Me actually worked surprisingly fast, considering I have very thick dark hair, with plenty of warm tones – I was well impressed! The toning was pretty quick and easy too as my hair was just the right level for it to cancel out the remaining yellowness. Slunks used Goldwell 10bs to get an icy cool blonde base layer to build the silver on!

Slunks actually then dried my hair, as the 9.117 by Affinage Silver can only take to dry hair. This actually took longer than I would have expected, but it’s always better to over-tone your hair to a purple-y blue oil colour if you’re going silver as this will allow your silver to last much, much longer – Trust me!

I left Slunks Salon with beautifully soft, silver locks and to this day I can’t thank them enough for treating my hair so kindly. Genuinely, I’ve never had it coloured and it felt so… alive before, you know? It still feels pretty soft and shiny for the amount of processing it’s been through and with a touch up every time I wash my hair, the colour is still rich and vibrant.

A massive thank you to Slunks for dealing with my big, thick, mess of a mane and being so kind when I had a little anxiety over my Alopecia (yes, I have bald spots). I would highly recommend Slunks Salon to any alternative guys n’ girls out there in South Wales who want a bright, bold colour and healthy locks to boot!

KEEPING IT SILVER

Top Top #1 – Only was your hair once a week if possible. My silver has lasted me about 2 months now, and I’d 100% day this is partly the reason. Obviously, the more you wash your hair, the more it strips the colour away… and it also dries your hair out! Your hair is most breakable when it’s wet and the more damaged your hair is the more porous it is, hence limit the time it’s wet and limit the breakage!

Top Tip #2 – Get a really good silver shampoo and conditioner, I use Davines’ Alchemic range, which features a lush purple shampoo and a colour-reviving mask which s really thick and full of that purple-toning power. I use these every time I wash my hair and it brings that silver tone back to life each time!